“Look,” he said calmly, hoping to settle them both down. “I know you don’t want to be in Argolea.”
“You think this is about Argolea?” She wrenched her arm from his hold. “This isn’t about Argolea. It’s about her.”
“Her who?”
“Her.” She held up a hand toward the castle. “Your soul mate.”
A hard knot formed in Nick’s chest, and his memory skipped back over the last few minutes. She’d obviously seen his reaction to Isadora. He hadn’t been able to mask it, even though he’d tried. No wonder she was pissed. Especially after the things he’d done to her in the tunnels of the colony. Especially considering the things he wanted to do to her all over again.
Nick took a step toward her. “It’s not what you think. Isadora and I—”
“Oh, for gods’ sake.” Cynna stepped back so he couldn’t touch her. “I don’t care that you have a soul mate. I don’t care if you have ten. What I care about is the fact it’s her. Of all the people in all the world, your soul mate turns out to be the one person I hate more than any other. I should have expected it. I should have known, dammit.”
She took another step back and waved her hands, and as he watched her frantic movements, as he saw her panic and anger growing, an odd tingle spread across the scars along his back.
“I don’t care how guilty I feel over the things Zagreus made me do,” she snapped. “I won’t have anything to do with her. And you can’t make me stay anywhere near this disgusting castle.”
She turned to leave again, but Nick caught her by the arm, twisting her back to face him once more. “Hold on. What did Isadora do to you?”
Her jaw clenched, and that dead look, the one he hadn’t seen in her eyes since before she’d tended his wounds in the Prince of Darkness’s lair, crept back into her gaze. A look that was so sudden, so emotionless, it halted every one of those tingles and sent a chill straight down his spine.
“Everything,” she said in a hard, cold voice. “She’s the reason I was with Zagreus. The person I traded my freedom for to see ruined. She’s the one who murdered my entire family.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The disbelief on Nick’s scarred face told Cynna everything she needed to know.
He didn’t believe her. But then, why would he? His soul mate was the queen of fucking Argolea. And he was so completely gone over her, he wouldn’t believe the truth about her even if it punched him square in the face.
Metal ground against metal at her back. Cynna didn’t have to look to know that the castle gates were opening. Someone was coming in. Which meant—because she couldn’t flash through solid walls, even out here in the open—she now had a way out.
She pulled her arm from his grip once more and moved back a half step. “This is finished.”
“Cynna—”
She closed her eyes and pictured home. Or what was left of it. And in a flash, she was floating, spinning, traveling across the distance to the only place in this miserable land where she’d ever felt she belonged.
Her feet connected with the hard ground, and she opened her eyes only to draw in a surprised gasp.
Snow littered both sides of the dirt road. Spindly barren deciduous trees void of leaves stood like decrepit statues while conifers swayed in the cool breeze. Beyond, the Aegis Mountains rose to the gray sky in shades of blue and purple. But what startled her wasn’t the familiar scenery. No, it was the two-story high stone wall that had been rebuilt, the enormous wooden gate—solid, not burned or broken or filled with holes—and the soldiers. Castle soldiers from Tiyrns—she recognized their emblems—manning the entrance.
Her pulse raced, and she looked all around as she moved forward, trying to figure out what was going on.
The guard to her right leveled her with a look and held out his spear. “Halt, female. Papers are required for admittance to the Kyrenia settlement.”
“Papers? What papers?”
The massive doors opened, just a crack, and a young male, close to Cynna’s age, came through, nodded at the guards, and walked past. Cynna peered through the opening as the gates slowly closed. Dozens of people filled the streets. Buildings—those were actual buildings, not ruins—stood on both sides of the road.
Her skin grew hot, and she took a step forward, a new sort of panic spreading through her veins. “Who’s in there? What…?”
The guard shoved a hand against her shoulder, stopping her. “Papers, female. No papers, no admittance.”
“But that’s my home,” she said, pushing against him. “I have every right to be here. I demand to know who’s using my—”
“Cynna? Is that you?”
The female voice from beyond the closing doors slowed Cynna’s struggling. She knew that voice. Knew it well.
Her heart beat hard, this time not from panic but from a warmth that curled through her entire body. “Delia?”